My sister and her boyfriend just spent two weeks in Saint-Michel. Apparently, they tried to buy some meat at the market and they were told that the piece of beef they wanted was too small and the butcher wouldn’t sell it to them. “I sell big cuts for four or five people,” he said. Since my sister and her boyfriend didn’t want a big piece of meat, they left without buying anything.

In the evening, I wanted to grab a cup of coffee at the biscuiterie Saint-Michel. It was 6:50 p.m., the café was closing at 7:30 p.m. and there were still customers eating and drinking when we stepped in.

“Bonjour, un café allongé s’il vous plait.”

“Pas possible.”

“But…?”

“I don’t serve coffee, too late.”

I would never walk in a restaurant half an hour before closing time because I’m perfectly aware that cooking and serving food takes time. On the other hand, it’s pretty easy to fill a cup with coffee and hand out a small pack of sugar—and I was taking it to go.

“Let’s go across the street, the place just reopened last week. They make crêpes, waffles, sandwiches… and I’m sure they have coffee.”

They did, although the new owner complained about the day’s “rush hour” while she was making coffee.

The shop also featured a poster below the cash register reminding French citizens of the law to remove full veils. I elbowed my mom. “Because I’m sure thousands of dangerous Muslim women stop by every day,” I whispered. “Super friendly approach.” Seriously, what the hell? It didn’t help that the shop owner was a Marine Le Pen lookalike.

I can’t understand this attitude towards outsiders. Saint-Michel and the nearby towns aren’t exactly the French Riviera. Even during summer, it’s not full of tourists and local small business owners live off tourism anyway!

I can’t explain it! Locals have always been like this as far as I can remember. When I was young, my grand-parents lived there often enough to have local friends and they invariably complained about tourists even though “tourists” (we’re talking small-scale tourism here, mostly families from Nantes and around spending the weekend at the beach…) had no impact on them. It’s not a Front national part of France either.

I’d say the towns are too small to live off tourism comfortably so they don’t try very hard.